3S-GE head on 5S-FE Franken-build.

NickBrown · Jul 7, 2025

Ok so hear me out...

I'm planning on adding the high flow head, intake, exhaust manifold and throttle body from a ST162 with the 3sge (gen 1 3s) or a ST183 (gen 2 3s) and chucking them on top of my 5sfe from my '94 st204.

Does anyone have any experience or information about this?

Please don't tell me to fully swap my 5s! There are a number of factors preventing me from doing this in my situation including:

Strict roadworthy laws (I want to keep my original 5s block and no turbo)
Very low parts availiblity for 3sgte and beams. I'm in australia.
I don't want a massive amount of power, just tryna have fun here so not looking to turbo or 2gr swap it.
I'm not looking to spend massive amounts and months of time on a full conversion (either to 3sgte, 2gr or beams), I just want to imporve my 5s.

I am doing a full rebuild on my 5s (mainly for the learning experience) and I've read that early 3s heads bolt onto the 5s blocks and improve it with bigger valves, a better valve angle and hugher flow ports. As far as I'm aware I should be able to use a 5s head gasket (even tho the 3s has a smaller bore by 1.1mm). Aparently everything lines up and it simply adds more flow to my eco-focused 5s.

There are a few cheap st162s going for sale near me and would be happy to have one as a parts car to donate the head, intake, exhaust, any different sensors and connectors. I'm hoping it'll be relatively simple and improve the characteristics of my 5s.

Please if anyone knows anything about doing this I would love to hear from you as I'm still a little hazy on the details and compatability. If you know it does or dosen't work, please let me know.

Thanks guys, looking forward to your responses!

NickBrown · Jul 7, 2025

Continuation...

I've also considered cams to wake up the 5s a bit but I'm yet to find any good options that wont cost a samll fortune in my country. I see a lot of people run Webcams 294 grind in their mr2s but that's in the US.

sefiro · Jul 8, 2025

You'll have to check if the ECU can compensate for the higher airflow.

If not, you might try a little bit larger set of injectors. If not

You might try a 3 sge ECU or a custom ECU.

NickBrown · Jul 8, 2025

I've heard the stock ecu should be able to do it as it'll work off the O2 and MAP. Again, I hope it'll work haha

Sea-J · Jul 8, 2025

Interesting that you are doing this. When I bought my '91 5sfe GT convert. the previous owner said the father-son project did the exchange that you are describing. I had no idea what she was talking about since I was new to the Toyota scene. The swap was made and the engine runs great but I'll never know what it was like before the swap. The two of them obviously worked on the car, there was a boneyard ECU in it but I replaced that with an OEM rebuilt without any issues. It must have run a lot better but they beat the crap out of the car and blew the transmission (automatic), slipping etc. I replaced the trans and dizzy and also most of the electronics. The car is now a summer daily driver with no engine issues at all. So long story short I think you'll be safe with the head swap without changing the ECU, besides, getting to the ECU is a PIA.

NickBrown · Jul 9, 2025

Great to here it's doable. Dou you know which gen 3s the parts came from? Or perhaps the gen of celica they were from? Keen on learning the ins and out of doing this. Cheers

Gorfel · Jul 15, 2025

This is actually a very popular mod for tuners. Its called the 5S-GTE, and requires a ton of parts from both engines, and also new custom (usually forged) parts to make a complete engine. But yes, it can be done.

NickBrown · Jul 15, 2025

Is there a big difference between going for a gte vs ge head? I was planning on keeping the car NA.

3S-GE head on 5S-FE Franken-build.

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